qui s'est passe en Canada, Oct. 1755 Juin,
1756_.]

[Footnote 407: _Letter of J. Choate, Albany, 12 July, 1756_, in
Massachusetts Archives, LV. _Three Letters from Albany, July, Aug.
1756_, in _Doc. Hist, of N.Y._, I. 482. _Review of Military Operations.
Shirley to Fox, 26 July, 1756. Abercromby to Sir Charles Hardy, 11 July,
1756_. Niles, in _Mass. His. Coll., Fourth Series_, V. 417. Lossing,
_Life of Schuyler_, I. 121 (1860). Mante, 60. Bradstreet's conduct on
this occasion afterwards gained for him the warm praises of Wolfe.]

This affair was trumpeted through Canada as a victory of the French.
Their notices of it are discordant, though very brief. One of them says
that Villiers had four hundred men. Another gives him five hundred, and
a third eight hundred, against fifteen hundred English, of whom they
killed eight hundred, or an Englishman apiece. A fourth writer boasts
that six hundred Frenchmen killed nine hundred English. A fifth contents
himself with four hundred; but thinks that forty more would have been
slain if the Indians had not fired too soon. He says further that there
were three hundred boats; and presently forgetting himself, adds that
five hundred were taken or destroyed. A sixth announces a great capture
of stores and provisions, though all the boats were empty. A seventh
reports that the Canadians killed about three hundred, and would have
killed more but for the bad quality of their tomahawks. An eighth, with
rare modesty, puts the English loss at fifty or sixty. That of Villiers
is given in every proportion of killed or wounded, from one up to ten.
Thus was Canada roused to martial ardor, and taught to look for future
triumphs cheaply bought.[408]

[Footnote 408: _Nouvelles du Camp etabli au Portage de Chouaguen,
premiere Relation. Ibid., Seconde Relation, 10 Juillet, 1756_.
Bougainville, _Journal_, who gives the report as he heard it _Lettre du
R.P. Cocquard, S.J., 1756. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756.
Ursulines de Quebec_, II. 292. _N.Y. Col. Docs._, X. 434, 467, 477, 483.
Some prisoners taken in the first attack were brought to Montreal, where
their presence gave countenance to these fabrications.]

The success of Bradstreet silenced for a time the enemies of Shirley.
His cares, however, redoubled. He was anxious for Oswego, as the two
prisoners declared that the French meant to attack it, instead of
waiting to be attacked from it. Nor was the news from that quarter
reassuring. Th